Driving environment display device for vehicles and method of controlling the same

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a driving environment information display method including acquiring environment information, selecting a first seed image corresponding to a curvature of a road on which driving is performed based on the acquired environment information, from among a plurality of lane surface seed images having different curvatures, disposing the selected first seed image at a display origin corresponding to a vehicle origin, primarily distorting the first seed image in a direction toward a target lane surface that becomes a display target based on a host vehicle in response to a first lateral distance of an adjacent lane division line located in the direction toward the target lane surface, secondarily distorting the image in the direction toward the target lane surface in response to a half of the lane width of a driving lane of the host vehicle, and outputting the secondarily distorted image through a display unit.

This application claims the benefit of and priority to Korean PatentApplication No. 10-2020-0182406, filed on Dec. 23, 2020, the entirecontents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a driving environment display devicefor vehicles capable of providing various kinds of driving environmentinformation and a method of controlling the same.

BACKGROUND

The statements in this section merely provide background informationrelated to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.

With development of an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) andautonomous driving technology, complexity in kind and configuration ofinformation to display the operation state of a system has increased.

FIG. 1A shows an example of a driving environment informationconfiguration provided through a cluster during autonomous driving, andFIG. 1B shows an example of a three-dimensional rendering configurationfor providing driving environment information.

Referring to FIG. 1A, a lane division line 112 around a host vehicle111, the location 113 of a nearby vehicle, and a target distance 114from a preceding vehicle recognized by a sensor may be displayed in aportion 110 of a cluster 100, the entirety of which is configured as adisplay.

Since it is desired to variously change the driving environmentinformation depending on the relative distance and azimuth between thehost vehicle and the nearby vehicle and the width and curvature of aroad, the driving environment information is generally implementedthrough three-dimensional rendering, as shown in FIG. 1B.

A display (e.g., a display of a cluster) may have a high-end processorfor the three-dimensional rendering, in order to execute a 3D enginecapable of processing three-dimensional graphics. If the high-endprocessor is not used, an individual image resource set for eachdistance and angle is desired to implement substantially the samedriving environment information as shown in FIG. 1A without a 3D engine.Since the number of resources that are required increases in geometricalprogression depending on target resolution of the distance or the angle,it is difficult to prepare image resources for all combinations inadvance in the aspect of image preparation and memory capacity.

For example, on the assumption that a longitudinal distance ahead of ahost vehicle is divided into 1500 steps, a lateral distance on each sideof the host vehicle is divided into 140 steps, and the curvature of alane is divided into 30 steps including left and right curvatures, thenumber of image resources that are desired is 6,300,000.

We have found that a method of efficiently displaying drivingenvironment information in a display device based on a 2D graphicsengine is desired rather than an engine for processing 3D graphics.

SUMMARY DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure provides a driving environment display device forvehicles and a method of controlling the same that substantially obviateone or more problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the relatedart.

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a driving environmentdisplay device for vehicles capable of more efficiently displayingdriving environment information and a method of controlling the same.

Another object of the present disclosure is to provide a drivingenvironment display device for vehicles capable of displaying variouskinds of driving environment information based on limited resourceimages using a 2D graphics engine and a method of controlling the same.

Objects of the present disclosure devised to solve the problems are notlimited to the aforementioned object, and other unmentioned objects willbe clearly understood by those skilled in the art based on the followingdetailed description of the present disclosure.

To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with thepurpose of the present disclosure, as embodied and broadly describedherein, a driving environment information display method may includeacquiring nearby environment information, selecting a first seed imagecorresponding to the curvature of a road on which driving is currentlyperformed, which is a piece of the acquired environment information,from among a plurality of lane surface seed images having differentcurvatures, disposing the selected first seed image at a display origincorresponding to a vehicle origin, primarily distorting the first seedimage disposed at the origin in a direction toward a target lane surfacethat becomes a display target based on a host vehicle in response to afirst lateral distance of an adjacent lane division line located in thedirection toward the target lane surface, secondarily distorting theprimarily distorted first seed image in the direction toward the targetlane surface in response to a half of the lane width of a driving laneof the host vehicle, and outputting the secondarily distorted first seedimage through a display unit.

In another aspect of the present disclosure, a vehicle may include asensor unit and navigation system configured to acquire nearbyenvironment information and a driving environment display deviceconfigured to output driving environment information based on theacquired nearby environment information. The driving environment displaydevice may include a controller configured to select a first seed imagecorresponding to the curvature of a road on which driving is currentlyperformed, which is a piece of the acquired environment information,from among a plurality of lane surface seed images having differentcurvatures, to dispose the selected first seed image at a display origincorresponding to a vehicle origin, to primarily distort the first seedimage disposed at the origin in a direction toward a target lane surfacethat becomes a display target based on a host vehicle in response to afirst lateral distance of an adjacent lane division line located in thedirection toward the target lane surface, and to secondarily distort theprimarily distorted first seed image in the direction toward the targetlane surface in response to a half of the lane width of a driving laneof the host vehicle, and a display unit configured to output thesecondarily distorted first seed image.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description of the present disclosure areexemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide furtherexplanation of the present disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the present disclosure and are incorporated in andconstitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of thepresent disclosure and together with the description serve to explainthe principle of the present disclosure. In the drawings:

FIG. 1A shows an example of a driving environment informationconfiguration provided through a cluster during autonomous driving;

FIG. 1B shows an example of a three-dimensional rendering configurationfor providing driving environment information;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the construction of avehicle according to an embodiment;

FIGS. 3A and 3B show components of driving environment informationoutput in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of a driving environmentinformation display process according to an embodiment;

FIG. 5 shows an example of reference information and resolution fordisplaying a nearby vehicle according to an embodiment;

FIG. 6 shows an example of the construction of a seed image fordisplaying a nearby vehicle according to an embodiment;

FIGS. 7A to 7D show an example of an image processing process fordisplaying a nearby vehicle according to an embodiment;

FIG. 8 shows an example of reference information and resolution fordisplaying a target inter-vehicle distance according to an embodiment;

FIGS. 9A to 9C show an example of an image processing process fordisplaying a target inter-vehicle distance according to an embodiment;

FIG. 10 shows an example of reference information and resolution fordisplaying a lane division line according to an embodiment;

FIG. 11 shows an example of the construction of a seed image fordisplaying a lane division line according to an embodiment; and

FIGS. 12A to 12D show an example of an image processing process fordisplaying a lane division line according to an embodiment.

The drawings described herein are for illustration purposes only and arenot intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the presentdisclosure, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings. The following embodiments are given by way of example in orderto enable those having ordinary skill in the art to fully understand theidea of the present disclosure. Therefore, the present disclosure is notlimited by the following embodiments, and may be realized in variousother forms. In order to clearly describe the present disclosure, partshaving no relation with the description of the present disclosure havebeen omitted from the drawings. Wherever possible, the same referencenumerals will be used throughout the specification to refer to the sameor like parts.

The term “comprises” or “includes” used herein should be interpreted notto exclude other elements but to further include such other elements,unless mentioned otherwise. In addition, the same reference numeralsdenote the same constituent elements throughout the specification.

When a component, device, element, or the like of the present disclosureis described as having a purpose or performing an operation, function,or the like, the component, device, or element should be consideredherein as being “configured to” meet that purpose or to perform thatoperation or function.

Also, the terms, such as ‘unit’ or ‘module’, etc., should be understoodas a unit that processes at least one function or operation and that maybe embodied in a hardware manner (e.g., a processor), a software manner,or a combination of the hardware manner and the software manner.

Prior to description of a driving environment information display methodaccording to embodiments of the present disclosure, the construction ofa device configured to perform the method will be described first withreference to FIG. 2 .

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the construction of avehicle according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 2 , a vehicle applicable to embodiments may include adriving environment display device 210 for vehicles, a sensor unit 220,a navigation system 230, and an input unit 240. FIG. 2 mainlyillustrates components related to embodiments of the present disclosure,and therefore an actual vehicle may include more or fewer components.

The driving environment display device 210 may include a display unit211, a communication unit 212, a memory 213, and a controller 214.

The display unit 211 may be a display constituting a cluster; however,the present disclosure is not limited thereto. For example, the displayunit 211 may be a head-up display (HHUD) or a display of anaudio/video/navigation (AVN) system.

The communication unit 212 may exchange data with the sensor unit 220,the navigation system 230, and the input unit 240 over a vehiclecommunication network (e.g. CAN, CAN-FD, LIN, or Ethernet).

The memory 213 may store various kinds of input/output information, andparticularly may store a seed image for each component of drivingenvironment information and various reference tables for imageprocessing, a description of which will follow.

The controller 214 may perform overall control of the components 211,212, and 213, and particularly may perform various kinds of imageprocessing for outputting driving environment information according toan embodiment.

The sensor unit 220 and the navigation system 230 may acquire nearbyenvironment information desired to constitute driving environmentinformation.

The sensor unit 220 may acquire information about the location of, arelative speed of, and a distance from an object around the vehicle,particularly a nearby vehicle. In addition, the sensor unit 220 mayacquire information about a lateral distance between a lane divisionline and a host vehicle and curvature of the lane division line throughlane division line detection. The sensor unit 220 may include at leastone of a radar, a lidar, a vision sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, and aninfrared sensor, which, however, are illustrative, and the kind of thesensor unit is not restricted as long as it is possible to acquiredriving environment information around the host vehicle.

The navigation system 230 may be mounted in the AVN system or a headunit; however, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. Thenavigation system 230 may acquire curvature information of a forwardroad based on the current location determined through GPS. Depending onembodiments, the navigation system 230 may provide road widthinformation for each lane division line depending on lane link based ona precise map.

The input unit 240 may allow a user to input a command for entry into amode in which a driving environment is displayed (e.g. autonomousdriving enabling) and a target inter-vehicle distance setting command.

FIGS. 3A and 3B show components of driving environment informationoutput in accordance with an embodiment.

Referring to FIGS. 3A and 3B, the driving environment informationaccording to the embodiment may include three main components, such asinformation of a nearby vehicle 310, a target inter-vehicle distance320, and information of a lane surface 330.

The nearby vehicle 310 is a concept including not only a vehicle locatedahead of the host vehicle traveling on the current driving lane but alsoa vehicle traveling on a lane on the left/right side of the drivinglane. A plurality of nearby vehicles 310 may be displayed as long as thevehicles are located within a sensing range of the sensor unit 220 or aperipheral range to be expressed by driving environment information.

The target inter-vehicle distance 320, which is a target distance from apreceding vehicle to be maintained by operation of a longitudinalautonomous driving system, may be changed depending on a set distance onthe driving lane of the host vehicle.

The information of the lane surface 330 provides the shape of a lanesurface of the driving lane, the left lane, or the right lane dependingon the curvature of the driving lane of the host vehicle. Theinformation of the lane surface 330 may be used to indicate a targetlane to which the vehicle desires to move through lane change in thedriving lane in an autonomous driving situation; however, the presentdisclosure is not limited thereto. For example, the information of lanesurface 330 may be used to inform a driver of a recommended lane at thetime of route guidance.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of a driving environmentinformation display process according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

Referring to FIG. 4 , the driving environment information displayprocess according to the embodiment may be mainly divided into aninformation acquisition process (S410) and an image processing process.The image processing process may be divided into a first imageprocessing process for a nearby vehicle (S420A to S460A), a second imageprocessing process for a target inter-vehicle distance (S430B to S460B),and a third image processing process for a lane surface (S420C toS470C).

First, the information acquisition process (S410) may be a process ofacquiring, by the controller 214, information desired to display nearbyenvironment information from the sensor unit 220, the navigation system230, and the input unit 240 through the communication unit 212. Kinds ofinformation that is acquired are the same as described above, andduplicate description will be omitted.

When information desired to display nearby environment information isacquired, the controller 214 may perform image processing for eachcomponent of the nearby environment information.

The first image processing process for the nearby vehicle (S420A toS460A) is described with reference to FIGS. 5 to 7D.

FIG. 5 shows an example of reference information and resolution fordisplaying a nearby vehicle according to an embodiment. FIG. 6 shows anexample of the construction of a seed image for displaying a nearbyvehicle according to an embodiment. FIGS. 7A to 7D show an example of animage processing process for displaying a nearby vehicle according to anembodiment.

Referring first to FIG. 5 , reference information for displaying anearby vehicle includes a lateral distance and a longitudinal distancebetween the nearby vehicle and the host vehicle. At this time, theorigin (0, 0) of a coordinate system may be provided at the middle of afront buffer of the host vehicle, and the location of the nearby vehicleis based on the distance between the origin and the middle of a rearbumper of the nearby vehicle. The reason for this is that the sensorunit 220 is disposed around the front buffer of the host vehicle and thesensor unit 220 senses the distance from the rear bumper of thepreceding vehicle; however, it is obvious to those having ordinary skillin the art that this criterion is changeable. In order to distinguishfrom the origin of a region displaying nearby environment information onthe display unit 211, a description of which follows, an originindicating the positional relationship between an actual vehicle and anearby object (a lane division line, a nearby vehicle, etc.) may bereferred to as a “vehicle origin.” In addition, the position of theregion displaying nearby environment information on the display unit 211corresponding to the origin of the vehicle may be referred to as a“display origin.”

In addition, the longitudinal distance may range from the host vehicleto a maximum of 150 m ahead, and the lateral distance may range from thehost vehicle to 7 m left and right each, as a display range of nearbyenvironment information, and the step division based on whichmovement/deformation is caused at the time of image processing may beset to 0.1 m. In this case, the longitudinal distance may be dividedinto 1500 steps, and the lateral distance may be divided into 70 steps(i.e. a total of 141 steps including “0,” which is the middle). Ofcourse, the maximum distance in each direction and step division areillustrative, and various changes are possible.

For example, the actual longitudinal distance based on a longitudinalsignal value transmitted from the sensor unit 220 may be defined asshown in Table 1, and the actual lateral distance based on a leftlateral signal value transmitted from the sensor unit 220 may be definedas shown in Table 2. Here, it is desired that any one of a signalcorresponding to the left lateral distance and a signal corresponding tothe right lateral distance is input to a nearby vehicle.

TABLE 1 Longitudinal distance of nearby vehicle Signal value Actualdistance (m) 0 0 1 0.1 2 0.2 . . . . . . 100 10 . . . . . . 1000 100 . .. . . . 1500 150

TABLE 2 Left lateral distance of nearby vehicle Signal value Actualdistance (m) 0 0 1 0.1 2 0.2 . . . . . . 70 7

Referring to FIG. 6 , a seed image set for displaying a nearby vehiclelocated within the relative lateral distance and longitudinal distancefrom the host vehicle driving on a road having specific curvature isshown.

The seed image set may include a total of 31 images, including a seedimage C of a vehicle facing forward without being biased to the left andright (i.e. having a lateral distance of 0), seed images L01 to L15 of avehicle showing the left surface of the vehicle depending on thecurvature of a road and the lateral distance of the vehicle, and seedimages R01 to R15 of a vehicle showing the right surface of the vehicledepending on the curvature of a road and the lateral distance of thevehicle. In FIG. 6 , seed images having directivity are divided into 15steps in each direction, which, however, is illustrative, and thepresent disclosure is not limited thereto. Depending on implementation,seed images showing one of the right surface and the left surface of thevehicle may be prepared, and the seed images may be reversed betweenleft and right when seed images in the opposite direction are needed.

For image processing of a nearby vehicle, a seed image may be selectedfirst (S420A). For example, the controller 214 may select one of aplurality of seed images of the nearby vehicle prepared in advance inconsideration of the curvature of a lane, the lateral distance, and thelongitudinal distance. To this end, the controller 214 may refer to apredetermined table that defines a seed image corresponding to acombination of the curvature of the lane, the lateral distance, and thelongitudinal distance.

When the seed image for displaying the nearby vehicle is selected, thecontroller 214 may locate an image 310 at the origin (i.e. the displayorigin), as shown in FIG. 7A (S430A).

Subsequently, the controller 214 may convert lateral coordinates of theimage 310 based on the lateral distance between the nearby vehicle andthe host vehicle, as shown in FIG. 7B (S440A). For example, on theassumption that the display unit 211 has a resolution of 1280×720, thelateral coordinates of the image 310 may be moved by 7 pixels perlateral distance of 0.1 m (i.e. one step).

In addition, the controller 214 may convert the size of the image 310 inproportion to the longitudinal distance within which the nearby vehicleis displayed using a vanishing point 710 of the lane as an anchor point,as shown in FIG. 7C (5450A). Here, the vanishing point may be a point atwhich opposite lane division lines around the host vehicle join eachother ahead of the middle of the host vehicle on a straight road havingno curvature. In addition, size conversion may be performed so as to becontracted when the longitudinal distance is based on the front of thehost vehicle and may be performed so as to be extended when thelongitudinal distance is based on the rear of the host vehicle. Duringsize conversion, the coordinates may be moved in the longitudinaldirection and the lateral direction by following a reference point. Inaddition, for a size conversion rate, a table prepared for eachlongitudinal distance may be referenced.

Subsequently, the controller 214 may compensate for the lateralcoordinates of the vehicle image generated depending on the curvature ofthe lane, as shown in FIG. 7D (S460A). The compensation amount of thelateral coordinates, i.e. the movement amount of the image 310 in thelateral direction, may be determined with reference to a table havingmovement amounts defined depending on the curvature of the lane and thelongitudinal distance.

Next, the image processing process for the target inter-vehicle distance(S430B to S460B) will be described with reference to FIGS. 8 to 9C.

FIG. 8 shows an example of reference information and resolution fordisplaying a target inter-vehicle distance according to an embodiment.In addition, FIGS. 9A to 9C show an example of an image processingprocess for displaying a target inter-vehicle distance according to anembodiment.

Referring first to FIG. 8 , the reference information for displaying thetarget inter-vehicle distance may be defined as a longitudinal distancebased on the vehicle origin of the host vehicle, which is a set targetinter-vehicle distance. The longitudinal distance may range from thehost vehicle to a maximum of 150 m ahead, and the step division based onwhich deformation is caused at the time of image processing may be setto 0.1 m. In this case, the longitudinal distance may be divided into1500 steps. Of course, the maximum distance and step division areillustrative, and various changes are possible.

For example, the set target inter-vehicle distance and a signal valuemay be provided as shown in Table 1 above.

In order to perform image processing for the target inter-vehicledistance, the controller 214 may locate an image 320 at the origin (i.e.the display origin), as shown in FIG. 9A (S430A). At this time, thetarget inter-vehicle distance has no directivity, and therefore a singleseed image is used.

In addition, the controller 214 may convert the size of the image 320 inproportion to the set target inter-vehicle distance using a vanishingpoint 910 of the lane as an anchor point, as show in FIG. 9B (S450B). Atthis time, for a size conversion rate, a table prepared for eachlongitudinal distance may be referenced.

Subsequently, the controller 214 may compensate for the lateralcoordinates of the target inter-vehicle distance image generateddepending on the curvature of the lane, as shown in FIG. 9C (S460B). Thecompensation amount of the lateral coordinates, i.e. the movement amountof the image 320 in the lateral direction, may be determined withreference to a table having movement amounts defined depending on thecurvature of the lane and the longitudinal distance.

The image processing process for the lane surface (S420C to S470C) willbe described with reference to FIGS. 10 to 12D.

FIG. 10 shows an example of reference information and resolution fordisplaying a lane division line according to an embodiment. FIG. 11shows an example of the construction of a seed image for displaying alane division line according to an embodiment. In addition, FIGS. 12A to12D show an example of an image processing process for displaying a lanedivision line according to an embodiment. It is assumed that lanedivision lines located on left and right sides of a host vehicle imageshown in FIGS. 12A to 12D have already been acquired so as to haveshapes corresponding to actual lane division line shapes using apredetermined method.

Referring first to FIG. 10 , the reference information for displayingthe lane division line includes a lateral distance between the hostvehicle and the left lane division line and a lateral distance betweenthe host vehicle and the right lane division line. The lateral distancemay range from the host vehicle to 4.5 m left and right each as adisplay range, and the step division based on which deformation iscaused at the time of image processing may be set to 0.1 m. Of course,the maximum distance in each direction and step division areillustrative, and various changes are possible.

Referring next to FIG. 11 , a seed image set for displaying a left lanedivision line and a right lane division line of the lane on which thehost vehicle currently drives is shown.

The seed image set may include a total of 31 images, including a seedimage C for displaying a straight lane surface having no curvature, seedimages L01 to L15 of a lane division line for displaying a lane surfacehaving curvature to the left, and seed images R01 to R15 of a lanedivision line for displaying a lane surface having curvature to theright. In FIG. 11 , seed images having directivity are divided into 15steps in each direction, which, however, is illustrative, and thepresent disclosure is not limited thereto. Depending on implementation,seed images having one of the right curvature and the left curvature maybe prepared, and the seed images may be reversed between left and rightwhen seed images in the opposite direction are needed.

For image processing of a lane surface, a seed image may be selectedfirst (S420C). For example, the controller 214 may select one of aplurality of seed images of the lane surface prepared in advance inconsideration of the curvature of a road. To this end, the controller214 may refer to a predetermined table that defines a seed imagecorresponding to the curvature of the road.

When the seed image for displaying the lane surface is selected, thecontroller 214 may locate the image 330 at the origin (i.e. the displayorigin), as shown in FIG. 12A (S430C).

Subsequently, the controller 214 may perform two-stage conversion of thelane surface image 330 disposed at the origin depending on a lane to bedisplayed (S470C).

For example, it is assumed that the lane surface desired to be shown inFIGS. 12B to 12D is a lane on the left side of the host vehicle drivinglane, the lateral distance between the lane division line on the leftside of the host vehicle and the vehicle origin is 1 m, and the lateraldistance between the lane division line on the right side of the hostvehicle and the vehicle origin is 2 m, i.e. the width of the lane is 3m.

In this case, in order for the lane surface seed image 330 to correspondto the position corresponding to the left lane, the controller 214 mayperform conversion such that the right lower edge position P of the seedimage 330 is displayed at the position P′ of the left lane divisionline, as shown in FIG. 12A. Since the proportional distance to beconverted is the lateral distance of the left lane division line (a) +½of the lateral width of the lane surface (b), therefore, the controller214 must perform distortion function transform corresponding to a and b.On the above assumption, a is 1 m, and b is 1.5 m, which is a half ofthe lane width, i.e. 3 m.

Of course, when the right lane surface is to be displayed, theproportional distance to be converted needs distortion functiontransform for lateral distance of the right lane division line +½ of thelateral width of the lane surface

When left conversion is performed first, the controller 214 may performdistortion function transform in proportion to the lateral distance ofthe left lane division line using a vanishing point of the lane as ananchor point, as show in FIG. 12B. Here, the distortion functiontransform may include horizontal skew transform. For example, for an8-inch display having a resolution of 1280×720, horizontal skewtransform of +1.29° may be performed per lateral distance to be moved of0.1 m. The lateral distance is positive (+) to the right and negative(−) to the left. That is, as shown in FIG. 12B, when the lateraldistance of the left lane division line is 1 m, horizontal skewtransform of −12.9° corresponding to −1 m is performed.

Next, the controller 214 may perform skew transform for the seed imageconverted once using the same anchor point to the left side by adistance corresponding to a half of the lane width, as shown in FIG.12C. That is, the controller 214 may perform horizontal skew transformof −19.35° corresponding to −1.5 m.

In brief, as the two-stage conversion for displaying the lane surface,i) conversion is performed once in a direction toward a target lanesurface that becomes a display target based on the host vehicle inresponse to the lateral distance of an adjacent lane division linelocated in the direction toward the target lane surface, and ii)conversion is performed once in the direction toward the target lanesurface in response to a half of the lane width of the driving lane(i.e. the lateral distance of the left lane division line of the hostvehicle driving lane + the lateral distance of the right lane divisionline thereof).

The two-stage conversion is shown in FIG. 12D, and it can be seen thatthe right edge of the left lane surface is converted so as to abut theleft lane of the host vehicle through such conversion.

In the above embodiments, the process of converting each seed image(e.g. origin disposition, horizontal coordinates movement, sizeconversion, and skew) has been described as an individual process withreference to the drawings for clear understanding. However, an imageduring conversion may not be output through the display unit 211, andonly an image finally converted for each display element may be actuallyoutput through the display unit 211. For example, an image correspondingto a nearby vehicle is finally displayed after step S460A of FIG. 4 ,and an image corresponding to a target inter-vehicle distance is finallydisplayed after step S460B of FIG. 4 .

It is possible to display various driving situations by deforming alimited seed image set using the above method. This method is capable ofbeing performed even by a relatively low-end processor having no 3Dengine.

The present disclosure described above may be implemented as acomputer-readable program stored in a computer-readable recordingmedium. The computer-readable medium may be any type of recording devicein which data is stored in a computer-readable manner. Thecomputer-readable medium may include, for example, a hard disk drive(HDD), a solid-state disk (SSD), a silicon disk drive (SDD), a read-onlymemory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a compact disc read-onlymemory (CD-ROM), a magnetic tape, a floppy disk, and an optical datastorage device.

As is apparent from the above description, a driving environment displaydevice for vehicles related to at least one embodiment of the presentdisclosure is capable of efficiently displaying driving environmentinformation.

In particular, it is possible to display various kinds of drivingenvironment information by performing parallel movement based ondistance, resizing based on a vanishing point, and positionalcompensation and inflection processing based on road curvature for a 2Dseed image prepared in advance, similarly to the case in which a 3Dengine is applied.

It will be appreciated by those having ordinary skill in the art thatthe effects achievable through the present disclosure are not limited tothose that have been particularly described hereinabove and that othereffects of the present disclosure should be more clearly understood fromthe above detailed description.

The above detailed description is not to be construed as limiting thepresent disclosure in any aspect, but is to be considered by way ofexample. The scope of the present disclosure should be interpreted asincluding all equivalent modifications made without departing from thescope of the present disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A display method for a driving environmentdisplay device to display driving environment information, the displaymethod comprising: acquiring environment information; selecting, among aplurality of lane surface seed images having different curvatures, afirst seed image corresponding to a curvature of a road on which drivingof a vehicle is currently performed based on the acquired environmentinformation; disposing the selected first seed image at a display origincorresponding to a vehicle origin; primarily distorting the first seedimage disposed at the display origin in a direction toward a target lanesurface that becomes a display target based on a host vehicle inresponse to a first lateral distance of an adjacent lane division linelocated in the direction toward the target lane surface; secondarilydistorting the primarily distorted first seed image in the directiontoward the target lane surface in response to a half of a lane width ofa driving lane of the host vehicle; selecting a second seed imagecorresponding to a third lateral distance between a nearby vehicle andthe vehicle origin, a first longitudinal distance therebetween, and thecurvature of the road based on the acquired environment information,from among a plurality of vehicle seed images having shapes viewed atdifferent angles; converting the selected second seed image based on thethird lateral distance, the first longitudinal distance, and thecurvature of the road; and outputting the secondarily distorted firstseed image through a display unit.
 2. The display method according toclaim 1, wherein the vehicle origin is a position corresponding to amiddle of the host vehicle in a lateral direction.
 3. The display methodaccording to claim 2, wherein: the first lateral distance corresponds toa distance from the vehicle origin to the adjacent lane division line,and the lane width is a value obtained by adding the first lateraldistance to a second lateral distance from the vehicle origin to a lanedivision line located in an opposite direction to the adjacent lanedivision line.
 4. The display method according to claim 1, wherein thedistortion comprises skew function transform applied horizontally by anangle corresponding to the first lateral distance or the half of thelane width using a vanishing point of a lane having a curvature of 0 asan anchor point.
 5. The display method according to claim 1, whereinconverting the selected second seed image comprises: disposing theselected second seed image at the display origin; horizontally movingcoordinates of the selected second seed image disposed at the displayorigin in response to the third lateral distance; converting a size ofthe second seed image having the moved coordinates based on the firstlongitudinal distance using a vanishing point of a lane having acurvature of zero (0) as an anchor point; and compensating for lateralcoordinates of the second seed image having the converted size inresponse to the curvature of the road.
 6. The display method accordingto claim 1, wherein the plurality of vehicle seed images comprises atleast one of a first seed image set showing a first side of the vehicleor a second seed image set showing a second side of the vehicle and aseed image facing forwards.
 7. The display method according to claim 6,wherein: when the plurality of vehicle seed images comprises any one ofthe first seed image set and the second seed image set, converting theselected second seed image comprises reversing the selected second seedimage between left and right depending on a direction of the thirdlateral distance.
 8. The display method according to claim 1, furthercomprising: disposing a third seed image indicating a targetinter-vehicle distance at the display origin; converting a size of thethird seed image disposed at the display origin based on a longitudinaldistance corresponding to the target inter-vehicle distance using avanishing point of a lane having a curvature of zero (0) as an anchorpoint; and compensating for lateral coordinates of the third seed imagehaving the converted size in response to the curvature of the road.
 9. Anon-transitory computer-readable recording medium containing a programrecorded thereon, the program to direct a processor to perform acts of:acquiring environment information; selecting, among a plurality of lanesurface seed images having different curvatures, a first seed imagecorresponding to a curvature of a road on which driving of a vehicle iscurrently performed based on the acquired environment information;disposing the selected first seed image at a display origincorresponding to a vehicle origin; primarily distorting the first seedimage disposed at the display origin in a direction toward a target lanesurface that becomes a display target based on a host vehicle inresponse to a first lateral distance of an adjacent lane division linelocated in the direction toward the target lane surface; secondarilydistorting the primarily distorted first seed image in the directiontoward the target lane surface in response to a half of a lane width ofa driving lane of the host vehicle; selecting a second seed imagecorresponding to a third lateral distance between a nearby vehicle andthe vehicle origin, a first longitudinal distance therebetween, and thecurvature of the road based on the acquired environment information,from among a plurality of vehicle seed images having shapes viewed atdifferent angles; converting the selected second seed image based on thethird lateral distance, the first longitudinal distance, and thecurvature of the road; and outputting the secondarily distorted firstseed image through a display unit.
 10. A vehicle comprising: a sensorunit and navigation system configured to acquire environmentinformation; and a driving environment display device configured tooutput driving environment information based on the acquired environmentinformation, wherein the driving environment display device comprises: acontroller configured to: select, among a plurality of lane surface seedimages having different curvatures, a first seed image corresponding toa curvature of a road on which driving is currently performed based onthe acquired environment information to dispose the selected first seedimage at a display origin corresponding to a vehicle origin, primarilydistort the first seed image disposed at the display origin in adirection toward a target lane surface that becomes a display targetbased on a host vehicle in response to a first lateral distance of anadjacent lane division line located in the direction toward the targetlane surface, and secondarily distort the primarily distorted first seedimage in the direction toward the target lane surface in response to ahalf of a lane width of a driving lane of the host vehicle; and adisplay unit configured to output the secondarily distorted first seedimage, where: the controller is further configured to: select, among aplurality of vehicle seed images having shapes viewed at differentangles, a second seed image corresponding to a third lateral distancebetween a nearby vehicle and the vehicle origin, a first longitudinaldistance therebetween, and the curvature of the road based on theacquired environment information, from and convert the selected secondseed image based on the third lateral distance, the first longitudinaldistance, and the curvature of the road, and the display unit configuredto output the converted second seed image.
 11. The vehicle according toclaim 10, wherein the vehicle origin is a position corresponding to amiddle of the host vehicle in a lateral direction.
 12. The vehicleaccording to claim 11, wherein: the first lateral distance correspondsto a distance from the vehicle origin to the adjacent lane divisionline, and the lane width is a value obtained by adding the first lateraldistance to a second lateral distance from the vehicle origin to a lanedivision line located in an opposite direction to the adjacent lanedivision line.
 13. The vehicle according to claim 10, wherein thedistortion comprises a skew function transform applied horizontally byan angle corresponding to the first lateral distance or the half of thelane width using a vanishing point of a lane having a curvature of 0 asan anchor point.
 14. The vehicle according to claim 10, wherein thecontroller is further configured to: dispose the selected second seedimage at the display origin, horizontally move coordinates of theselected second seed image disposed at the display origin in response tothe third lateral distance, convert a size of the second seed imagehaving the moved coordinates based on the first longitudinal distanceusing a vanishing point of a lane having a curvature of zero (0) as ananchor point, and compensate for lateral coordinates of the second seedimage having the converted size in response to the curvature of theroad.
 15. The vehicle according to claim 10, wherein the plurality ofvehicle seed images comprises at least one of a first seed image setshowing a first side of the vehicle or a second seed image set showing asecond side of the vehicle and a seed image facing forwards.
 16. Thevehicle according to claim 15, wherein: when the plurality of vehicleseed images comprises any one of the first seed image set and the secondseed image set, the controller is configured to reverse the selectedsecond seed image between left and right depending on a direction of thethird lateral distance.
 17. The vehicle according to claim 10, whereinthe controller is configured to: dispose a third seed image indicating atarget inter-vehicle distance at the display origin, convert a size ofthe third seed image disposed at the display origin based on alongitudinal distance corresponding to the target inter-vehicle distanceusing a vanishing point of a lane having a curvature of zero (0) as ananchor point, and compensate for lateral coordinates of the third seedimage having the converted size in response to the curvature of theroad.